Matthew 25:1

Matthew 25:1 tou/ numfi,ou {B}

It can be argued that the words kai. th/j nu,mfhj (“and the bride”), which are supported by a rather strong combination of witnesses, were omitted because they were felt to be incompatible with the widely held view that Christ, the bridegroom, would come to fetch his bride, the church. But it is doubtful whether copyists would have been so sensitive to the logic of the allegory. Furthermore, those who omitted the words envisaged the wedding as taking place in the home of the fiancée; those who added the words envisaged the bringing of the bride by the bridegroom to his home (or the home of his parents) where the wedding takes place. Since the latter custom was more common in the ancient world, ²⁶ it is probable that the words are an interpolation by copyists who did not notice that the mention of the bride would disturb the allegorical interpretation of the parable. Only the bridegroom is mentioned in what follows.

²⁶ Cf. Hilma Granqvist, Marriage Conditions in a Palestinian Village, II (Helsingfors, 1935), pp. 79 ff.; Joachim Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus (New York, 1963), p. 173; and idem, in Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, IV, p. 1100.